


a little lie

by Maronedits



Category: Ghost Whisperer
Genre: Background Melinda Gordon, Crush, Crushing, Fluff, Jim's gay, M/M, Rick is himself, Rick's clueless, Still Married, The one where Jim's haunted by that girl, based on an episode, gay boys, gay soft boy, just flipped the ep a little, made it gay, might end up being a whole book idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 16:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20910815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maronedits/pseuds/Maronedits
Summary: I just wanted to write Jim and Rick's meeting and put a small gay twist on it.I might make this into a multi-chapter thing if people actually like it





	a little lie

Jim had his reservations about seeing Rick Payne, the professor had been helpful to Melinda when she needed, but now he had to go, and make it seem not suspicious that he was there. He easily found his way around the campus to Paynes office. He gave a gentle knock on the already open office door to make himself present.

He saw a younger -- rather cute -- male leaning over a projector poking at it with a pencil.

"uh, hello? I'm looking for Professor-Dr Payne?" he asked figured the professor was somewhere else.

"So are half the credit card companies in the US" the male said, glancing up toward him "what can I do for you?" 

"You're Payne?" he asks.

"Yes, Unfortunately" he nods "You are?"

"Sorry I just thought you were much older" Jim says, suddenly he feels dumb, he probably looked dumb standing there shocked over seeing how young the professor was... had to be not much older then himself.

"Why don't you come back in 45 years?" he says.

Jim bites the inside of his cheek so he doesn't smile at the professors witty comments. He takes a deep breath regathering himself. He moved further into the office keeping his eyes on the professor as he continued to tinker with the projector. 

"Um, I'm Jim Clacy, Melinda Gordon's husband? She says you help her sometimes" this seems to get the young professors attention as he stood up and quickly shakes Jims hand.

There's a brief moment where Jim feels lost in the touch… what was happening to him… had to be this ghost thing getting to him… right?

"You're Melinda's husband" the man smiles "wow this is very interesting"

The shake is going on longer than needing to, yet Jim can't find it in him to complain.

"Yeah, my wife out of town, she sent me -"

"Your wife fascinates me," Payne cuts him off.

Jim feels a spike of jealousy rise in him… except he's not jealous of Payne, no, who then. Their still holding hands despite the fact they weren't shaking one anothers hand anymore. Jim wonders if Payne realize this but he can't think straight while the professors deep blue eyes are locked on to his, so full of wonder, so curious, almost like he's trying to get to know Jim without asking any questions.

"Yeah… she has that effect on people" he's surprised when he sounds bitter… okay stay calm Jim… you're just all messed up because of this ghost. "Look, sometimes she says you help her and I'm working on this project and I was wondering if you'd give me a hand" they finally let go of one another hands, except now Payne just feels too close to him, a smile on the professors lips.

"Well, what kind of project?" Payne asks.

"I'm writing a book, you know everyone's doing it these days," he says with a shrug.

"Melinda said you were a paramedic?" 

"It's a hobby"

“Saving lives is a hobby?"

This time Jim can't help but let out a small laugh "no writing"

"oh writing - writing the book is a hobby" Payne nods and it makes Jim wonder if he was this way all the time, he also can't help but want to find out.

"I'm a little lost right now, I'm playing with all this… symbolism, cats for instance, uh -" before he can finish his thought Payne starts walking away toward one of his bookshelves.

Jim looks after him confused and quickly follows. He misses how close they are, he wants them to be close again - focus Clancy. Payne grabs a book from the shelf and meets him part way at on of his desks.

"Here you go Melinda's husband" he says setting the book down "Take your pick"

Jim looks through the book, he flips a few pages, looking at the different breeds of cats. His eyes catches the one from his dream and quickly stops flipping.

"Ah, that one" he points to what book has labeled as 'The Abyssinian Cat'.

"Excellent, Abyssinian, an Egyptian cat, very spooky looking huh?" Pyan has a playful smile on his face that makes Jim smile as well, he nods in agreement, "You know the ancient Egyptians were crazy about cats Jim" 

Jim has to force himself to focus, because all his brain seemed to want to focus on was the fact that Payne said his name.

"If you killed a cat, you had to be killed… if your cat died you went into mourning, you shave off your eyebrows while in mourning - which I tell you must of been a fantastic look" 

Jim let out a slight laugh but nods, he likes the passionate glint in the professor's eyes as he tells Jim about this stuff. Jim loses himself in those eyes for a second before shaking his head slightly.

"Okay… well what if I throw some beetles in the story what would that mean?" he asks

"That would depend"

"On what?"

"The Beetle, I wasn't partial to George" 

Jim goes silent, if the professor wasn't so cute with his playful little jokes and snide remarks Jim would of been very annoyed. Instead he wants to listen to the professor talk more - he wants to see how the man conducts his classes, and how he is as a friend… maybe - damn it, it's just the ghost messing your head up. Payne moves past him and for the shortest, yet longest moment in Jim's life his arm brushes Paynes. Jim feels dazed.

"I'm joking, That's a joke" he says as he settles behind what seems to be his main desk and looks at his computer "Guess Melinda hasn't told you a lot about me" he sounds almost disappointed.

"No… No, she just said you were a great guy" he smiled, Payne did seems like a great guy, albeit a little sarcastic and coy, but still…

"Well, then you have been horribly miss informed" he said another playful smile that takes Jims breath away "what color are these beetles?"

"Their green… and their shiny, kinda beautiful when not appearing out of nowhere" he automatically feels likes he's given away to much.

Payne has that curious glint in his eyes again "Green? Those are scrabs, there's a lot of Eygiption symbolism in your book"

"Could be… yeah" Jim nods.

They not at one another, the eye contact feels too long and yet Jim wants it to last, however Payne breaks it to type something on his computer, mumbling to himself as he types.

"There's your green scarabs"

Jim takes that as an invitation to get closer to Payne again, he looks at that bugs on the screen pointing to one, but Paynes already explained.

"- usually symbolized regeneration or rebirth"

"Right so if I was - uh… if my character was getting sent these symbols what do you think that would mean?" he asks, despite all of Jim's weird behavior and thoughts he is getting the information his needs.

"Could mean a lot of things, could mean beauty, Egypt, could mean the goddess Isis she's the most powerful,most popular" he says, it give Jim's brain a jump start into actually thinking about this "but you have cats… that would make me think of the goddess Bastet, he's the protector or cats and women" Jim realizes something it must show on his face because the professor waits for him to speak.

"Did you just say Bastet?" he asks.

"Bastet, yeah, just now" Payne nods.

"Bastet cosmetics, you know Bastet cosmetics?" he asks quickly.

"Cosmetics? I - um - I'm not… that's not really my area of expertise" another playful smile that almost makes Jim forget the revelation he just made.

"You know what Doc. you helped me a lot, thanks" he shakes Payne's hand and starts to leave before he get caught up in the feeling of theirs hands touching again.

"You're leaving? Wait!" Payne moves to chase after him "Do you guys do this all the time? the two of you?"

Jim keeps walking, not allowing himself to look back, if he does he's afraid he might stay "what?" he asks getting to the door and having to pause.

"The: saying something, but I'm not telling you what I mean, and I'm being wacky and evasive thing, do you both do it?"

Jim looks back at him, giving him a playful smile "I don't know what your talking about" he shrugs.

"Yeah… " Payne smiles, it hits Jim hard, he made Payne smile "Just like that… that's good" 

Jim leave Payne forcing himself to keeping. Melinda, you love Melinda, don't go back.

-

After talking to Melinda the next day they had settled on the choice that he should look for this model that's shown up in his dreams. He looks through every beauty and girly magazine he can get his hands on, grabbing all of them finally he finds her.

"There you are" he mumbled to himself, grabbing the magazine and going to check out.

He reaches into his pocket to grab his wallet, he hears footsteps behind him.

"Do you have Smithsonian?" It Payne, he doesn't have to look to know that and once again he's too close, yet not close enough.

Payne moved past him having to shuffle past Jims back.

"Sorry" Jim says keeping his head down, not looking at the man's beautiful blue eyes that make him question everything he knew about himself.

Payne says nothing until he gets a clear view of him then he's pointing at him "Ah your…" 

Jim hates that it hurts him so much that Payne forgot his name, he hoped it didn't show.

"Jim" 

"Jim! Melinda husband" stop calling me that - he reaches out shaking Jim's hand.

"Yeah… and your professor Payne" he says, once more the shake last a few seconds to long, was it Payne or him doing this?

"Yes I am" Jim hates what Paynes smile does to him, they let go of each others hands "But please call me Rick" 

The paramedic feels like he's been blessed, this man wants him to call him by his first name? It makes Jims heart flutter… fuck, whats happening to me? he simply nods.

"How's the book coming?" he asks.

Jim contemplated telling him the truth… he couldn't - "slowly" 

The vender starts saying out loud what he picked out and Jim feels mortified, he wants to crawl into the hole and stay there.

"- one fashion today, and one tween sheek" the vendor's voice is judgmental - Jim doesn't care about him.

He refused to look up but he sees Rick peeking over the vendors shoulder with a playful smile, like he's figured out something that no one else has, he forced his eyes back down to his wallet as he plays with a dollar bill poking out it.

"Melinda's still out of town?" Rick's voice is playful, Jim still feels embarrassed and he knows he's probably blushing, but he still loves that tone of the professors voice.

"She's coming back soon" 

"Ah" Rick nods as Jim gets his change back.

Jim grabs his magazines and turns around to hide somewhere for awhile. Maybe for a few months until Rick forgets about this, and Jim is hopefully back to normal.

"Hey Jim" Rick says getting his attention to turn again "Maybe I can come by and keep you company while Melindas gone, or you could come by my office again and we can discuss your book" he smiles, its a genuine offer.

"Yeah… sure I'd like that" Jim nods his mouth not being able to close all the way.

Rick nods and smiles at him before turning to find his Smithsonian, Jim leaves. Looks like I have a book to start writing...


End file.
